[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joss-whedon1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Always be yourself... [[BaitAndSwitchComment unless you suck]]."]]

->''"This is my [[SignatureStyle entire career]] in one scene: Look, [[DamselInDistress she’s helpless]]! [[SubvertedTrope No]], [[ActionGirl she’s kicking their asses]]!"''
-->-- '''Joss Whedon'''

'''Joseph Hill Whedon''' (born June 23, 1964) is a scriptwriter, director, [[TheCameo cameo]] actor, television producer through his famed MutantEnemy production company, ComicBook author, and -- as of his appearance on ''ThisAmericanLife'' -- a singer. Best-known for ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', ''Series/{{Angel}}'', ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', the [[ScrewedByTheNetwork famously-]][[TheFireflyEffect cancelled]] cult hit ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', [[TheMovie its motion picture]] ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog'' and ''Film/TheAvengers''. Joss comes from a family of talented writers, and is often called one of the first ''third''-generation television writers.

His personal stamps are writing for [[ActionGirl tough female characters]], along with a [[WorldOfSnark dry, caustic wit]] which proves key to defeating any evil force who opposes them. And [[TrueArtIsAngsty angst]]. [[{{Wangst}} Lots]] [[DeusAngstMachina and lots]] [[DiabolusExMachina of angst]]. [[AngstDissonance Even in the middle of]] [[CerebusSyndrome comic storylines or situations]].

In fact, Whedon delights in [[SubvertedTrope defying audience expectations]], to the point that [[{{Jossed}} his name is invoked when a fan theory is explicitly disproven]]. Rather than killing a major character, he'll kill off [[MauveShirt a minor but much more endearing character]]. Whedon explained in the DVD commentary for ''Serenity'' that he likes doing such things because people ''expect'' the hero to die or be horribly injured at some point -- but they don't expect the ''minor'' characters to die, so the impact is much greater! Unfortunately, he's [[SignatureStyle done this so often]] that nobody familiar with Whedon expects characters they like to live anymore.

His {{Website/Twitter}} account may be found [[https://twitter.com/JossWhedon here]].

[[folder:List of Works]]
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Films written: ]]

* ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' film
* ''Film/{{Speed}}'' (Script doctor)
* ''Film/{{Waterworld}}'' (Original draft, which was mangled beyond recognition)
* ''Film/{{Twister}}'' (Script doctor)
* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' (Co-writer)
* ''Film/AlienResurrection''
* ''TitanAE''
* ''AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' (Early script)
* ''Film/XMen1'' (Script doctor)
* ''Film/{{Serenity}}''
* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'' (Co-writer)
* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' (Co-writer)
* ''Film/TheAvengers''
* ''The Avengers 2''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Films directed: ]]

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}''
* ''Film/TheAvengers''
* ''MuchAdoAboutNothing''
* ''The Avengers 2''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Films Produced: ]]

* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Television Work: ]]


* [[/folder]]

[[folder: As Creator / Executive Producer / Director: ]]

** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' series
** ''Series/{{Angel}}''
** ''Series/{{Firefly}}''
** ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}''
** ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD''

* [[/folder]]

[[folder: As Writer / Guest Writer: ]]

** ''{{Roseanne}}''
** ''Series/{{Parenthood}}'' (1990 version)

* [[/folder]]

[[folder: As Director: ]]

** ''TheOffice'' ("Business School" and "Branch Wars")
** ''{{Glee}}'' ("Dream On")

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comics written: ]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}''
* ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer: Season Eight'' and ''Season Nine''.
* ''[[Series/{{Angel}} Angel: After The Fall]]''
* ''[[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} Astonishing X-Men]]''
* ''{{Fray}}''
* ''Film/{{Serenity}}''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original projects: ]]

* [[WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]
* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TiXUF9xbTo Whedon on Romney]]"
[[/folder]]

Not to be confused with JossStone.
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!!TropeNamer for:
* AppliedPhlebotinum
* {{Jossed}}

!!This creator and his works contain examples of:
* AbusiveParents / ParentalAbandonment: A staple of the Jossverse, sometimes lampooned. For the Freudians out there, Joss' parents split before he turned 10.
* ActionGirl: Very common. Though Whedon himself doesn't think this should even be a trope. He once recounted how interviewers always ask why he writes so many strong, competent female characters, saying he always wants to yell at them about why they aren't asking every other writer why they ''don't'' write these kinds of characters.
** To elaborate, instead of viewing a character as a woman who does "action-y" things, view it as a character who does "action-y" things who happens to be a woman; the emphasis lies on the actions of the character and not the gender.
* AnyoneCanDie: Villians, heroes, children, the main character, ''anyone'' can die in a Joss Whedon production.
** ''Buffy'' / ''Angel'': [[spoiler:Jesse, Jenny Calendar, Doyle, Tara, Anya, Joyce, Lilah (sorta), Cordelia, Fred, Wesley, Lindsey, Spike, Angel, and Buffy herself, twice. Giles as well as of the Season 8 comics.]]
** ''Firefly'' / ''Serenity'': [[spoiler:Shepherd Book, Wash.]]
** ''Dollhouse'': [[spoiler:Topher Brink, Boyd Langton, Paul Ballard, Mellie!November, Bennett Halverson, and possibly the majority of the cast considering the {{Distant Finale}}s]].
** ''Dr Horrible'': [[spoiler:Penny.]]
** ''TitanAE'': [[spoiler:Korso, Preed, and Cale's father.]]
** ''Film/TheAvengers'': [[spoiler:Agent Coulson.]]
** ''[[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} Astonishing X-Men]]'': [[spoiler:Kitty Pryde]]
** ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'': [[spoiler:Every last member of the cast and then the entire planet.]]
* {{Atheism}}: Whedon is rather hardline about this, but on the other hand, he ''is'' capable of writing religious characters without letting his own beliefs influence him. Steve "ComicBook/CaptainAmerica" Rogers in ''The Avengers'', for instance, is given a line wherein he states his belief that "There's only one God", but that's pretty much the ''only'' thing the other Avengers don't make fun of him for. And [[{{Series/Firefly}} Shepherd Book]] is shown to be a friendly, open-minded Christian as well as a deep, well-rounded character.
* AuthorAppeal: Likes to give a few of his characters English accents (Joss attended school in Britain), like The Watchers, Spike, Adelle, and that [[{{Firefly}} Badger]] fellow.
** People with mental illness shows up in a lot of his shows.
** And [[FootFocus feet]].
** ElvisCostello references.
** [[YuriFan Tends to turn]] [[LesYay his female characters into]] [[SchoolgirlLesbians lesbians]], if they weren't already.
** Likes to name his characters after objects (Willow, River, Spike, Faith, Book)
** [[MutantDraftBoard Mysterious organizations who recruit people with special talent]] (The Watchers Council, Blue Suns, The Academy, Wolfram & Hart, SHIELD and SWORD)
* BadNewsInAGoodWay: He also enjoys excitedly announcing to his actors that he's killed them.
* {{Badass}}: Many kinds of badass.
** BadassAdorable: Willow, Fred, Kaylee
*** Kitty Pryde TookALevelInBadass under his writing.
** BadassNormal: Xander, Black Widow, Hawkeye
** BadassLongcoat: Angel, Spike, Mal, Nick Fury
** BadassBookworm: Wesley, Willow, Giles, Simon, and arguably Shepard Book (how ''does'' a preacher know so much about crime?)
** CulturedBadass: Inara Serra, Rupert Giles, Wesley
** LittleMissBadass: River, Buffy, the Slayer Army, Echo
** BadassCrew: Crew of ''Serenity'', the Scooby Gang, Team Angel, The Avengers
** BadassPreacher: They call him a shepherd, but that's what Book is.
* BetterThanABareBulb: The source of much Whedon comedy.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: River, Drusilla, Alpha, [[spoiler:Hawkeye]].
* BuffySpeak: While he didn't invent it, Joss and his shows had a big hand in changing the way TV and movie characters talk, especially white teenagers. This isn't because he likes it so much as [[WriteWhoYouKnow it's how he speaks]].
* BuryYourGays: Joss actually likes having same-sex couples who are in happy, stable relationships. But since he also thinks TrueLoveIsBoring, this eventually leads to him killing one or both members of the couple for the sake of drama. Note that [[AnyoneCanDie he does this to heterosexual couples too.]]
* CastTheExpert: The casting of ballet dancer SummerGlau in an episode of ''Angel'' and hiring Tony Award-winning Hinton Battle as a choreographer and as the dancing demon Sweet in ''Buffy'''s [[MusicalEpisode "Once More With Feeling."]]
* {{Chiaroscuro}}: The man adores negative space.
* TheCameo:
** Guest starred as a news anchor in Creator/{{Jane Espenson}}'s web series ''Husbands''.
** Appeared in an episode of [[FeliciaDay Geek & Sundry's]] ''Written By A Kid''.
** Douglas the car rental office boss in the ''Series/VeronicaMars'' episode "Rat Saw God".
* CreatorCameo: He has self-inserted himself into a number of his own works, including:
** Lorne's brother Numfar in ''Series/{{Angel}}''
-->"Numfar! Do the dance of joy!"
** The ''Buffy'' comics line.
** [[DeathByCameo The interviewer]] in [[Film/{{Serenity}} The R. Tam Sessions.]]
** One of the singing cowboys in ''Dr. Horrible''.
* CuteBruiser: A number of his {{Action Girl}}s also have SuperStrength, including [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]], [[Series/{{Angel}} Cordelia]] and Fred.
* DeadpanSnarker: Has a very dry sense of wit.
** Take his political [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TiXUF9xbTo "endorsement"]] in the 2012 Presidential Election, for example.
** He would often [[http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/GraphicCity/news/?a=79191 take false rumors]] with gigantic heaps of sarcasm in stride.
* DeusAngstMachina, DiabolusExMachina, usually combined with TooHappyToLive below.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Though he's always had a reputation for using {{Anyone Can Die}}, he's lately been accused of relying on it a bit too much, killing characters off just for cheap shock value long after we've learned to suspect it's coming.
* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Once jokingly asked Americans to vote for Mitt Romney in order to bring about an [[RuleOfCool awesome]] ZombieApocalypse
* FamilyBusiness: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whedon Members]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Whedon of]] the Whedon family have been writing for television practically since the medium's inception, and then, of course, there are his brothers.
* FootFocus: Before there was Echo, there was River ... and Drusilla. [[LongList And Fred. And Eve. And Lilah.]]
** And now, Pepper.
* ForeignCussWord: A staple of his productions. Examples include Spike dropping a British cuss words on ''Buffy'', the ''Serenity'' crew swearing in Mandarin, and Loki calling Black Widow a "[[CountryMatters mewling quim]]" in ''Film/TheAvengers''.
* HollywoodAtheist: Malcolm Reynolds is deeply bitter against God/Christianity after losing a war. NathanFillion himself stated that Mal is actually a NayTheist who's pissed off after the Serenity Valley.
** Whedon himself is an interesting case. He says he can't bring himself to believe in a god, but he's actually very bothered by that.
* ICallItVera: "MutantEnemy" was originally the name of his typewriter in school.
* {{Irony}}: He [[DoesNotLikeGuns really doesn't like guns,]] but is frequently waist-high in them due to the kinds of shows and movies he does.
* KillEmAll: Talked about this in [[http://screenrant.com/joss-whedon-avengers-2-nolan-dc-movies-characters/ one of his interviews]]. Whether he's joking or not is ambiguous considering his reputation for killing off beloved characters.
-->'''Joss''': The idea of doing [Film/TheAvengers] three times just staggers the imagination. I’m not that young. But then, I hadn’t really intended to do a second one. In the third one, I really am going to kill everyone.
* KillTheCutie: Joss Whedon is a sick, sick man.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: On his commentary for ''{{The Avengers}}'', he laments that both feature films he's directed suffer from this problem, meaning a few will inevitably not get the focus they deserve.
* MoodWhiplash: All. The. Time.
* OldShame: The unaired ''Buffy'' pilot. It's on Youtube if anyone's interested. Also, the film.
** Whedon was asked by IGN Film Force in June 2003 about the unaired presentation:
--->'''IGNFF''': Is the presentation ever going to make it to DVD?\\
'''Whedon''': Not while there is strength in these bones.\\
'''IGNFF''': Well, I mean, it's one of the most heavily bootlegged things on the Internet.\\
'''Whedon''': Yeah. It sucks on ass.\\
'''IGNFF''': Yeah, it does, but it's sort of that archival, historical perspective...\\
'''Whedon''': Yeah, [[IWillShowYouX I've got your historical perspective]].
** ''Film/AlienResurrection'', which was supposedly [[PoesLaw written as a parody]]. Needless the say, the irony blew up in his face -- and not for the last time, either. "[[Film/XMen1 The same thing that happens to everything else"]], indeed.
** Joss doesn't have fond memories of ''{{Roseanne}}''. The eponymous star was apparently on [[ThePrimaDonna her worst behavior]], and the whole crew bore the brunt of it.
* ProductionPosse: Some actors achieved a "hat trick" of appearing as [[YouLookFamiliar different characters]] in all three of his series. The most notable of these actors is Actors/JonathanMWoodward. Not only did Woodward appear in all three of Whedon's shows (Holden Webster in ''Buffy''; Knox in ''Angel'' and Tracy in ''Firefly''), his character [[ChronicallyKilledActor died in each instance.]]
** For a longer list, '''see MutantEnemy.'''
** Carlos Jacott, best known for [[spoiler:shooting Bill Henrickson]] in the finale of ''Series/BigLove'', played the smarmy villain Ken in the ''Buffy'' episode "Anne". He would later appear on ''Angel'' ("Bachelor Party") and ''Firefly'' ("Serenity").
** AmyAcker (''Angel'') and Actors/AlanTudyk (''Firefly'') both resurfaced on ''Dollhouse'' after the demise of their respective shows. Acker would later be cast in ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods''.
** Creator/AdamBaldwin and GinaTorres were salvaged from ''Firefly'' to play villains on ''Angel''. Creator/MorenaBaccarin was slated to appear (also as a baddie), but Fox execs [[ExecutiveVeto nixed the idea]]. And, of course, NathanFillion was a recurring villain in ''Buffy'''s last season.
*** Additionally, if one wanted to play Six Degrees of Adam Baldwin, he also appeared on TimMinear's short-lived thriller ''The Inside''.
** AlexisDenisof is a frequent collaborator. In addition to playing Wesley on ''Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}}'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' and Senator Daniel Perrin in ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', he had a surprise voiceover in ''Film/TheAvengers'' (as [[spoiler:{{Thanos}}'s right hand man The Other]]) and is Benedick in Whedon's ''MuchAdoAboutNothing''.
** Creator/JeremyRenner, who plays Clint "{{Hawkeye}}" Barton in ''The Avengers'', played a baddie on ''Angel'' way back in 2000.
** Gnarl, one of The Gentleman, the Ubervamp, and the Prince of Lies were all the same guy: Camden Toy.
** Andy Umberger was D'Hoffryn on ''Buffy'', a crazy psychosurgeon on ''Angel'', and an Alliance Captain in the ''Firefly'' pilot.
** EnverGjokaj - Victor in ''Dollhouse'' - had a cameo in ''Film/TheAvengers'' as a police officer.
** Drew Goddard, director and co-writer of ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods''. He previously worked as a writer for ''Buffy'' and ''Angel'' and had a {{cameo}} in ''DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog'' as a member of The Evil League of Evil.
** TimMinear, who worked on series such as ''Angel'', ''Firefly'', and ''Dollhouse'' as well as being the creator of ''Series/{{Drive}}'' which starred NathanFillion.
** Creator/JaneEspenson, who wrote for ''Buffy'' (including the comics), ''Angel'', and ''Firefly''. Joss made a {{cameo}} in her series ''Husbands''.
* PutOnABus: Numerous characters, but most notably [[spoiler: Kitty Pryde]] during his run on ''Astonishing X-Men''. Particularly shocking, considering how much he loved the character ([[spoiler: she's often cited as an inspiration for Buffy]]). [[ComicBookDeath Obviously, another writer undid it]]. But still...
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: To many the TropeCodifier, after how Fox under-supported and then cancelled his sci-fi series ''{{Firefly}}''.
** His earlier scuffles with the WB, too.
* ShinyNewAustralia: Aside from ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog'' being the TropeNamer, in the documentary ''Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope'', he comments:
-->'''Whedon:''' When people say the geeks have inherited the Earth, I say (...) "How much of the Earth do I get? Can I have Australia?"
* StrawMisogynist: Includes at least one in each of his television shows. They all suffer [[LaserGuidedKarma violent deaths]] at the hands of [[ActionGirl women]].
* StuffedInTheFridge: Any time he kills a character, their loved one will inevitably walk in on the corpse soon after to [[DeusAngstMachina amp up the angst]].
* TooHappyToLive: Whedon regularly kills happy characters, or destroys their lives, or ruins their relationships.
* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: He wrote ''Alien Resurrection'' as a satirical parody, in an attempt to get fired from the job. The studio executives instead thought the script would make a ''[[SpringTimeForHitler perfect]]'' action / horror film. [[invoked]]
* TrollingCreator: Regularly [[KillTheCutie kills]] or [[BreakTheCutie emotionally tortures]] sweet lovable characters in his works. Also regularly lampshaded for laughs.
-->'''Creator/NeilPatrickHarris:''' You do kill a lot of women.\\
'''Joss Whedon:''' Hey, [[CrowningMomentOfFunny my personal life is not on trial here!]]
* TrueLoveIsBoring: Every time Joss writes a happy, stable couple, he proceeds to kill one or both of them to make things more interesting.
* WaifFu: He's very fond of tiny {{Action Girl}}s kicking the asses of big, burly men, as seen with [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]], [[Film/{{Serenity}} River]] and [[Film/TheAvengers Black Widow]].
* WorldOfSnark: Due to all his characters being exceptionally GenreSavvy, they tend to all be {{Deadpan Snarker}}s too.
-->'''Joss Whedon:''' Everyone has such a dry wit in [[Film/TheAvengers this movie]]. Its like a desert of wit.
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